Photo: Magnolia677 · CC BY 4.0Households in Como earn less than in almost any other U.S. town
17.5% of residents live below the poverty line; Mississippi has 18.9%. Measured by household income, Como is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. Como grades D for jobs and income and B for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The figures behind Como’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Como is better than 12% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Como’s grade up (ahead of 45% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($21,404, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (35.3%) is left out: Como’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Como could be anywhere from D to C−.
The daily commute in and out of Como
On a workday 431 residents head out to work, 14 work right here, and 229 people come in from elsewhere.
About 860 people are in Como on a workday afternoon, 19% fewer than live here.
0.55 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
16% of working residents work in Senatobia
Where Como clocks in
16% of workers
11% of workers
8% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
What work there is in Como: 243 jobs
243 jobs are based in Como.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Como, 2013 → 2023: 169 → 243. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Como’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Como, about 27 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Como workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 292 commuters (the 4% who work from home are left out). Across Mississippi: 87% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How far Como’s workers travel
About 20% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Most of Como commutes by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Como is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.8% across Mississippi, on an EPA index of 6.7.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 304 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 17.9% of Como households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Como’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400, Como ranks 2,444th of 3,133 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 999 | Columbus AFB MS | 1,293 | $70K | 6.3% | 1.9% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,160 | Hurley MS | 1,305 | $133K | 12.6% | 4.7% | 1% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,242 | Robinhood MS | 1,298 | $70K | 14.1% | 5.1% | 1% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,442 | Mead Township PA | 1,248 | $54K | 13.1% | 1.4% | 5% | D |
| 2,443 | Duson LA | 1,357 | $25K | 39.3% | 10.6% | <1% | D |
| 2,444 | Como MS | 1,064 | $21K | 17.5% | 35.3% | 3% | D |
| 2,445 | Busseron Township IN | 1,251 | $46K | 13.4% | 1.0% | 9% | D |
| 2,446 | London AR | 1,061 | $50K | 24.8% | 2.1% | 7% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Como, the top three, the last and three more from Mississippi.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Como: questions
What is the median household income in Como?
$21,404 (±$5,612) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Como?
17.5%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Como?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Como work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Senatobia (16%, 7 mi), Memphis (11%, 41 mi), Batesville (8%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Como walkable?
Como is more walkable than 57% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Como without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 18% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Como, from the people who make the trip.
More of Como
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.